Illustrating key concepts in the Decentralized Web

People from the Internet, I will make this very simple, we live in a strange web. Data is not yours, services don’t interoperate, you are locked in very many 'walled gardens', there is someone in the middle of your interactions, (actually, it's always the same folks) web pages disappear/die every 100 days, online identity - what the heck is that?

At the same time, Internet connection got better, our computers much faster our devices are all connected, storage is cheap. Why don’t we - society, individuals and companies - start to build technologies that take advantage of this?

Let’s bring decentralization at the center of attention.- Nicola Greco

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Centralized vs Decentralized Infrastructures

In centralized infrastructures, the service is offered by a few providers, while in a decentralized infrastructure any user can be a service provider.

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The Token Model

Protocol Tokens are a new application for blockchain. Some tokens give access to a service, access to a market or represent equity in a product. Tokens can be traded for other tokens or fiat currencies. All the services that a token gives access to and all the trades done in the network are verifiable.

Verifiable Markets

A Verifiable Market is a market where the exchange of a service is verifiable: everyone can verify that the service has been provided (in this way, everyone can confirm that the service provider should be paid).

Cloud vs Decentralized Storage Network

Both the cloud and a decentralized storage network offer the same storage services to the end users, one is a single company offering the service, one is multiple independent providers offering the service.

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Incentivizing Decentralized Storage

Who is willing to store someone else’s files for free? In an incentivized DSN, users pay the providers that are offering storage to them.

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Filecoin

Filecoin is a special Decentralized Storage Network with a specific protocol. Anybody can earn Filecoin for hosting files, and can exchange their Filecoin for USD, Bitcoin and other currencies and cryptocurrencies. In this way, it is now possible to store files reliably and securely at hypercompetitive prices, as vendors are now competing to host files at the best prices.